Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2011, written on 19 May 2011, four days into the 15-M protests. “This Friday” is 20 May 2011, and the list of cities with demonstrations called reflects reports at that moment.
Spain’s protest against political corruption and against those truly responsible for the crisis, the corrupt global financial system, may not be a «trending topic» on Twitter for «unknown reasons», but it is undoubtedly trending all over the world.
The New York Times is covering #Spanishrevolution at a crucial moment, just as the three biggest banks on Wall Street are being investigated for their role in, and collaboration with, the crisis. Spain is already making news in the most important media in France, Italy and practically the whole eurozone.
Iceland showed us the way, and a way to defeat the system «with a few kitchen pans» (a reference to its 2009 «pots and pans» protests). Now, after Spain’s belated initiative, new demonstrations have been called in Naples, France, Sweden and Belgium. Demonstrations have also been called for this Friday in Brussels, Birmingham and Bogotá, following those in Buenos Aires and Edinburgh.
If this avalanche of demonstrations in Europe and parts of South America continues, it won’t be long before the movement spreads around the world, because if there’s a politician and a bank, I’m sorry to say, your country has lived through the same corruption that has outraged Spain.
Featured image: Mar del Sur, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
